


she is stronger than she looks

by Youletmeknow



Series: Stories from Justice University [3]
Category: Teen Titans (Animated Series), Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-11
Updated: 2019-08-11
Packaged: 2020-08-19 09:21:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20207404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Youletmeknow/pseuds/Youletmeknow
Summary: College AU. He’s seen her around campus for a while now, and decides to shoot his shot. So how is he the one who winds up with an arrow through his heart?





	she is stronger than she looks

A/N: college au, Justice University, 2 in the morning

* * *

You're sitting across from me in this shitty diner, sucking up the remnants of your milkshake, because you seem like a good sport, and I swear I would have taken you somewhere else but this just happens to be the only place still open after the home game. We won, which was pretty sick: JU Titans over CCU Panthers. And at the end of all the fanfare, adrenaline was thrumming under my skin so fierce that it gave me the courage to walk up to you and introduce myself.

You leaned down over the railings of the bleachers to meet my eye. _Kory_, you said your name was, and it burned into my brain like a cattle branding iron.

I'm sitting in this old booth, rolling the straw wrapper through my fingers, and I crack a smile despite myself, because I'm trying to look cool and nonchalant but I'm failing miserably at every word you say. Your voice is serotonin, and the crappy yellow lights that flicker and buzz in this diner line your auburn hair with soft golds, so excuse me if I'm a little stunned stupid for a bit. It's just really late, and you're the prettiest thing I've ever seen.

We talk for hours because conversation comes easy for me in a way it hasn't since the falling out with my dad. You tell me you're a freshman and a criminal justice major, just like me, and I'm nodding my head while sending a few prayers up to the Big Man Upstairs that we get the same classes next semester. I tell you I'm adopted, and you tell me you like cats. I tell you I'm into gymnastics and fancy cars and you tell me you like sriracha mayo on almost everything.

By the time cupid's arrow is well and fully struck through me, the morning light begins to spill through the tops of the buildings and beam through our window, and you finally say, "I should actually get some sleep. I do have a competition tomorrow."

"Competition?"

The bridge of your nose does that crinkle thing when you smile and I feel the arrow bury itself a little further. "Lifting," you say.

"Lifting," I repeat, because, again, I'm stunned stupid right now.

I must have a face on, because you laugh. "If you must know, I'm stronger than I look."

(I drive you back home, and I'm so worried about the mess in my car and my choice of music on the playlist that I barely notice the moment you take my hand in yours, but it's warm like starfire.)

You let me come to the competition, and I don't really care that I'm running on little sleep. I'm powered by two shots of espresso and a hunger to see you again, and I'm holding my breath as I watch you walk up to the mat, prepared to deadlift 300 pounds, and I am just _riddled_ with doubts, because _surely_ you can't—

You can. And you do. Apparently you _are_ stronger than you look and I'm intimidated and amazed and frightened and turned on and when they announce your name as first place winner, you do a cruel thing. You look up to where I'm sitting, and you smile.

**Author's Note:**

> dickkory week day 6: stargazing (get it? He's Star gazing *cue laugh track*)
> 
> That's the end of DickKory Week 2019. I liked these prompts a whole lot.
> 
> This is a spinoff one-shot from my Stories of Justice University series. One's about Jason Todd and the other is about Artemis Crock and Dick and Kory are main characters in both, but I never wrote how they met.
> 
> By the way deadlifting 300 pounds is a lot, it's kind of unreal, she's a powerhouse #BoundlessConfidence


End file.
